What It Is
Sertraline belongs to a class of medicines called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, commonly abbreviated as SSRIs, a widely used category of antidepressant medicines.
What It's Used For
Sertraline is generally used to help manage conditions including depression and various anxiety-related conditions, based on its effects on certain brain chemical systems.
How It Works
Sertraline works by influencing the activity of serotonin, a chemical messenger in the brain involved in regulating mood, among other functions. Normally, after serotonin is released by one nerve cell and delivers its signal to a neighboring cell, it's reabsorbed, or "reuptaken," back into the original cell. Sertraline blocks this reuptake process, allowing serotonin to remain active in the space between nerve cells for longer, which is thought to gradually influence mood-related brain activity over a period of sustained use.
History and Regulatory Status
Sertraline was developed by an American pharmaceutical company and was approved for clinical use in the early 1990s, arriving a few years after the first SSRI medicines were introduced to the market. Its introduction was part of a broader shift during this period toward SSRIs, which were generally associated with a more favorable tolerability profile compared to older classes of antidepressant medicines. Sertraline's patent protection expired in the early 2000s, after which it became widely available as a generic medicine, and it remains one of the most commonly prescribed antidepressants globally.